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Cashman: We could trade for a DH

In a conference call with reporters discussing the Michael Pineda trade on Monday, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said that he’d be more inclined to trade from his pitching depth to acquire a designated hitter than to sign one on the open free agent market.

When the Yankees officially announce the signing of right-hander Hiroki Kuroda, they’ll have seven starters vying for five spots. CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Pineda, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and Freddy Garcia are also in that mix.

“Maybe I use our excess pitching to find a bat,” Cashman said. “That’s a possibility. … We stretched the payroll to get [Kuroda] done, so I’m not sure what we have financially. I think we’ll look at the trade market first and foremost and see where that takes us.”

Among the DH options out there, the Yankees have reportedly heard from Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Vladimir Guerrero and Raul Ibanez, but are not thought to consider any of them an urgent priority.

“I think [the free agent market] would be secondary,” Cashman said. “Not that any of those players aren’t quality, but I do think it’s probably in our interest to first and foremost see what’s available in the trade market, because we have excess starter. There should be a demand and an interest at the various levels in our starting pitching that might prove beneficial.”

If the season started today, the Yankees would likely go with Andruw Jones as their DH, though they are curious about Minor League slugger Jorge Vazquez.

8 Comments

Personally, I don’t see how a Garcia trade wouldn’t make sense down the road or whenever, pending his agreement to a trade. Most likely the Yankees think more highly of Kuroda and his 93 mph velocity, if they didn’t they never would have traded for him. Garcia is on the downside of his career with declining velocity. They also would be giving Hughes every chance in the world to regain his form, which for them is very important. Not likely the Yanks will putting BUSTnett in the pen with his contract so it would be most likely Garcia would be odd man out of rotation. saying that he has no BP experience isn’t much of a reason to keep him out of the BP a lot of former starting pitchers have easily made that conversion. So the rotation could be Sabathia, Nova, Pineda, Kuroda, and BUSTnett ( Hughes could even be slotted in ahead of Kuroda depending on how well he does). If he doesn’t make the starting rotation and doesn’t want to pitch out of the pen then he could consent to a trade.

That is more likely to happen than a Bay for BUSTnett deal. I don’t see how trading two terrible contracts would benefit either team. Bay would be nothing more than a DH and part time OFer in the AL and his contract won’t justify that type of player who has had declining power numbers in 3 of the past 4 yrs and has had trouble staying healthy, not the type of player the Yanks need to tie themselves to.
BUSTnett on the other hand hasn’t come close to living up to his contract since coming to the Yankees, plus he has been terrible in the 2nd half of each season since coming to the team.

So yeah, a Garcia trade does make the most sense and it’s a scenario most likely to happen.

We won’t trade Garcia. He makes most sense as a 4 for us. The most logical deal would be Burnett for Jason Bay. Both of them have terrible contracts but they almost match. Bay has been a disappointment since signing that big deal. AJ has had only one good season since 2009. AJ gives the Mets a veteran who could use a change of scenery. Bay would be better suited back in the AL and he can fill the DH or play part time in the OF.

BUSTnett is untradeable, thinking any team would take him on is a pipe dream. The most obvious choice would be Garcia, he is coming off a good season and he is still pretty cheap for someone who has decent value as a No. 4 or 5 starter. Most likely Garcia will probably be nothing more than a middle reliever this year. This team would be smart to trade him NOW.

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